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AN EARNEST LIFE 



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Mrs. ELIZABETH J. STONE 



SKETCH 



Helen Wa ldo Burnside 



Washington, D. C. 

Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders 

1893 



'i^' 






Note. — In describing the homes of the Stone family, the author of 
this sketch has drawn somewhat from an article written by herself, a few 
years since, for the Evening Star of Washington. 



In Exchans-e 
B. C. Pub. iSb. 



Copyright, 1893, by Helen Waldo Burnside. 



E. J. S. 

March 2, 1804 August 3, 1892 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



" Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers.'' 

On tHe second of March, 1804, nearly ninety 
years ago, when Washington mnst have seemed 
almost a part of the surrounding wilderness, a 
little girl, Elizabeth Jane Lenthall, was born 
here at the Lenthall homestead, on F street. 
This child, so well known to the Washington 
of to-da}^ as Mrs. Elizabeth J. Stone, passed 
her long, gracious, and beneficent life in this 
city, where she died on the third of August, 
i8q2. 4 



4 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

Mrs. Stone's maternal grandfather was Rob- 
ert King, a snrveyor of note in England, who 
came here with his family in 1797, and was 
made surveyor of Washington when it existed 
as a city only on maps and charts. He after- 
wards returned to England, where he died, but 
his daughter, Jane King, who had become the 
wife of Mr. John Lenthall, remained in Wash- 
ington, as did the two sons, Nicholas and 
Robert King, Jr., both of whom were surveyors 
of eminence, the latter holding, after his father, 
the position of surveyor of the city. 

The death of Robert King, Sr., occurred 
many years ago, but the portrait of his strong, 
kind face, with earnest eyes looking through 
the big, round glasses, is familiar to many 
Washingtonians of to-day. This portrait was 
painted by Jackson, a member of the Royal 
Academy, once a poor lad, whom the benevolent 
Earl of Mulgrave befriended and, with the 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 5 

assistance of his friend Robert King, educated. 
When the boy became an artist, in loving 
proof of gratitude to his two benefactors, he 
painted for Lord Mulgrave this portrait of 
Robert King, which was afterwards sent to 
the American branch of the King family. 

Mrs. Stone's father, John Lenthall, was also 
of English birth, and the great-grandson of 
Sir William Lenthal, who was Master of the 
Rolls, 1645 't ^ Commissioner of the Great 
Seal, 1646, and Speaker of the House of Com- 
mons. 

Mr. John Lenthall was a prominent citizen 
in the Washington of his day, and was, for 
the last years of his life, assistant architect of 
the original Capitol building, under Mr. Ben- 
jamin Latrobe. During the frequent and pro- 
longed absences of Mr. Latrobe from Washing- 
ton the direction of the entire work at the 
Capitol rested on Mr. Lenthall. The simple 



% 



6 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

living of those times, as well as the confidence 
and esteem which existed between Mr. Latrobe 
and Mr. Lenthall, the ''Clerk of the Works 
of the Public Buildings of the United States 
Capitol," as he was frequently addressed by 
Mr. Latrobe, is shown by the letters, carefully 
preserved by the family, which passed between 
them. These letters were sometimes sent 
under cover to the President of the United 
States, Thomas Jefferson, and one of them, 
dated September 2, 1807, is endorsed thus : 

" Th. Jefferson presents his compliments to mr. Len- 
" thall, and sends him a letter this moment received, inclosed 
'• from mr. Latrobe ; being handed him among his own, he 
^' broke it open without looking at the superscription; 
" but seeing Mr. Lenthall's name at the head of it, he 
" closed it instantly, and assures him on his honor that he 
"■ did not read one other word in it. 

" Sunday evening." 

Mr. Uenthall lost his life on the nineteenth of 
September, 1808, in the old rotunda of the 
Capitol, by the falling of an arch from which 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 7 

the supports had, against his advice, been pre- 
maturely removed. 

Thus early orphaned of their father, the 
three young children of the King-Lenthall 
family, the little Elizabeth and a brother and 
sister, were trained up in simple, thoroug-h, 
earnest ways by a mother of rare intelligence 
and refinement. In that early day, when the 
best teaching was difficult of attainment, this 
mother, aided by her brothers, Nicholas and 
Robert King, succeeded in giving her children 
not only a thorough but a finished education. 
A deep love for reading and study was early 
formed in all three, and so developed, then and 
in after life, that they always found themselves 
interested in and abreast of the best thought 
of the day. 

The brother, John Lenthall, became a Con- 
structor in the U. S. Navy, and when retired 
from active service, at the age of sixty-two, was 



b AN EARNEST LIFE. 

Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, 
Navy Department, Washington, with the rela- 
tive rank of Commodore. He was always dis- 
tinguished by his thorough and exact methods 
in all the details of his profession, and by his 
unswerving integrity in fulfilling all its duties. 
The oldest daughter, Mary King Lenthall, 
showing a decided talent for painting and draw- 
ing, as well as for music, became an artist of no 
slight ability, sketching from nature with much 
skill. During the last years of her life, after 
she had suffered a stroke of paralysis by which 
her right hand lost its cunning, she began to 
draw and paint with her left, and adapting her- 
self without a murmur to the new order of en- 
forced inaction, in a condition so helpless as to 
have convinced any but the most courageous soul 
that all the work and all the pleasure of life 
were over, to the amazement of her friends she 
thus made, both in water-colors and oils, several 



AN EARNEvST LIFE. 9 

exquisite pictures of the flowers wliicli were 
brought in to brighten her room 

And dear " Aunt Mary Lenthall," as she was 
lovingly called by many who could claim no tie 
of kinship, won this victory over disease and 
failing strength when she was more than eighty- 
two years old. Those whose blessed fortune it 
was to be admitted to that quiet, upper room, the 
room which looked out over the old garden where 
the sisters and brother had played in childhood 
and had dreamed in youth, the garden made 
precious by a host of tender memories, will 
never forget the vision of beautiful old age 
presented by the venerable, white-haired woman, 
so nearly helpless, but still happily and cheer- 
fully interested in her work and success as an 
artist. 

Under the rectorship of the Reverend Charles 
H. Hall, now of Trinity Church, Brooklyn, in 
1857, Miss Lenthall organized, and for years 



lO AN EARNEST UEE. 

taught, the infant class in the Sunday-school of 
Epiphany Church, Washington. Besides this, 
she long had charge of a sewing-school for 
mission work on Saturday mornings, to which 
many mothers sent their children, that they 
might come under the gracious influence of the 
gentle teacher. During the last, long illness, 
when speech had become so difi&cult that per- 
sons of mature years often failed to catch her 
meaning, the little three years old daughter of 
one of these former scholars was brought to see 
dear "Aunt Mary Lenthall," in the hope that 
the child might be allowed to share the love of 
that tender heart. Afterwards, one anxious to 
know how the interview had fared asked, " Did 
you see Aunt Mary ? What did she say ? '' 
The child stopped, with a visible effort to recall 
the words which had been spoken, and while 
the little face brightened with the recollection 
of the interview, so impressive even to the baby 



Aisr EARNEST EIFE. II 

mind, replied, ''Yes, I saw Aunt Mary. She 
sa3^-d she would love little children, and I say-d 
yes I " The aged saint and the prattling infant 
had met, and recognized, each in the other, a 
kindred soul. Truly, of such is the Kingdom 
of Heaven. 

Elizabeth Lenthall was earl}^ married to Mr. 
William James Stone, who w^as born in London, 
but who came to the United States in childhood, 
and was for the greater part of his life a resi- 
dent of Washington. By his strong and upright 
character Mr. Stone won the respect of all with 
whom he came in contact. He was by profes- 
sion an engraver, not only of skill but of 
distinction. He filled many important con- 
tracts for the Government, and his business 
in all its branches was an extended and 
lucrative one. 

It was always pleasant to hear Mrs. Stone 
speak of the early days of her married life. 



12 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

showing her helpful interest in her husband's 
work and aims. She would sometimes display 
with pride a map of Washington engraved by 
herself, in 1833, from actual surveys laid out on 
the ground by her two uncles, Nicholas and 
Robert King, Jr. This map shows with accu- 
racy the topographical features of Washington 
sixty years ago, with its hills still prominent, 
its valleys not yet brought up to grade, and 
the little Tiber flowing back and forth across 
Pennsylvania avenue. 

What interesting memories of the Wash- 
ington of that date, and earlier, were Mrs. 
Stone's ! She used to tell how, in 1814, she 
and her brother and sister were put into a 
cart and carried off by night to the Hol- 
mead farm, on Mount Pleasant, for safety 
during the occupancy of Washington by the 
British. In early childhood the three children 
used to attend school in a little house which 



AN EARNEST LIFE. I3 

stood on the site of the present National 
Hotel, tripping gail}^ along by conntr^^ paths 
which led through the huckleberry bushes 
by the side of the road, which we to-day know 
as Pennsylvania avenue. Later, the two 
sisters went for drawing lessons to a room 
in an unfinished building connected with 
the White House, and just east of it, which 
w^as afterwards converted into stables for the 
presidential mansion. Here they were taught 
by a Mr. Andre, one of the foreign artists 
employed by the Government. 

During some years of their early married 
life, while Mr. Stone was actively engaged 
in business, and Washington was still a 
village in ever^T-thing but name, and Penn- 
sylvania avenue but little other than a 
country street, the family lived in the centre 
of the town^ occupying several different 
houses owned by Mr. Stone, some of which 



14 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

have for years been landmarks of the older 
Washington. 

Four children, a daughter and three sons, 
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stone, who, in 
mutual love and confidence, gave their best 
thought and their most earnest efforts to 
the training and education of their young 
family. They did not, however, forget others 
who might need their aid, but systemati- 
cally followed out the methods of far-reach- 
ing but unobtrusive kindness and benevo- 
lence which they had adopted in their earliest 
married life, and into which they were accus- 
tomed to put such personal interest and 
sympathy for those they were benefiting 
that, whether their gifts came in the form of 
money or other timely aid, the most sensi- 
tive souls never felt that they had received 
charity. 

It was not many years before Mr. Stone 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 15 

bought a tract of land for a home outside 
the city limits, on Mount Pleasant, as all 
the high plateau just north of the city 
boundary, and running from Kalorama to 
Seventh street, was originally called. 

It is interesting to know that this purchase 
included a part of the Holmead manor, to 
which Mrs. Stone and her sister and little 
brother had been carried in the night for 
refuge, during the war of 181 2-' 14. The 
original name of the farm was retained, and 
the country home of the Stones, with its broad 
outlook over the growing city close below it, 
the shining river beyond, and farther still 
away the Virginia hills fading blue in the 
distance, was fitly known as " Mount Pleasant." 
About 1840 the solid, beautiful manor-house 
was built, which was to be the home of the 
family for years. It stood close to what is now 
Thirteenth street extended, and is the present 



1 6 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

city home of Mrs. Logan. As originally con- 
structed, this house had an east and a west 
wing, which stood back of and a little apart 
from the main building, with which both were 
connected b}^ halls below and galleries above. 
These galleries, with their heavy mahogany 
balustrades, and their stairways leading from 
either side to the main, broad staircase in the 
centre, and so to the hall below, were a strik- 
ing feature of the house as originally con- 
structed. Mr. Stone, who possessed a decided 
taste for art, which the leisure of his mature 
years gave him ample opportunity to cultivate, 
provided for a picture gallery and studio in one 
of the wings. Here his favorite avocation, in 
which he attained much skill, was modeling 
in clay and plaster. 

The children of the Stone family received an 
education in every sense of the word liberal. 
The oldest son, Robert King, afterwards the 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 17 

well known and mucli beloved Dr. Stone, who 
was the family physician of President Lincoln, 
and by his bedside during the awful hours 
which succeeded the assassination, and the 
next born, William James Stone, Jr., who 
became a prominent member of the Washing- 
ton bar, after completing their college life, 
made an extended tour of Europe — a finishing 
and broadening process which was considered 
less essential, and which was certainly far less 
easily attainable, forty years ago than now. 
Jane, the only daughter, married Colonel James 
W. Abert, of the U. S. Army, and died in 
early womanhood, leaving one child, a son, who 
spent his youth in the home of his grand- 
parents. George, the youngest son, died in 
Philadelphia before completing his course in 
medicine. Portraits of this child as an infant, 
and of the daughter in her early girlhood, 
were painted by Mr. Asher Durand, at the 



l8 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

time he was painting the portrait of President 
Van Buren, at the White House, and made his 
home with his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Stone. 
This portrait of the little boy, together with a 
bust of Mr. Stone by the artist Powers, both 
interesting examples of the original work of 
two of the prominent artists of our country, 
were some years ago presented by Mrs. Stone 
to the Corcoran Art Gallery. The sweet face 
of the young girl is now treasured in the 
family of her only son, after having looked 
down in smiling peace upon the changes of 
many years from the wall of the pleasant 
library in Mrs. Stone's last Washington home. 
This home, 609 Fourteenth street, built by 
Mr. Stone while living at Mount Pleasant, was 
occupied, soon after its completion, by Jefferson 
Davis, then Secretary of War, and here little 
Samuel, the eldest born child of that family, 
died. After Mr. Davis gave up the house it 



AN EARNEST LIFE. I9 

was held untenanted until the Stone family 
came to occupy it. This happened in 1859, 
and in 1861 the estate at Mount Pleasant was 
entirely and voluntarily given up for the use 
of the soldiers, no compensation having ever 
been desired or received from the Government 
in return. From this time the Fourteenth- 
street house w^as the home of Mrs. Stone. 

During the years of the family life here the 
doors of this home were ever wide open to 
receive the neighbors, the friends from far and 
near, or the strangers who claimed its hospi- 
tality. Here the beloved children and chil- 
dren's children delighted to gather, and later 
the bright group of great-grandchildren, " start- 
ing like sudden spring," came to lend the grace 
and brightness of childhood to the dear familiar 
rooms. While living here Mrs. Stone was 
blessed with some of her greatest joys, and 
here she doubtless endured her keenest sor- 



20 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

rows, passing through all with a serenity which 
sprang from her native, gentle dignity, and 
which was elevated and strengthened by her 
unfailing trust in the good providence of God, 
which she believed to be ever about her. In 
1865 her husband died in this home, and she 
entered upon her long widowhood, which was 
to last nearly thirty \^ears. 

Some years before, Mrs. Stone's eyesight had 
become seriously impaired by a disease which 
progressed steadily, in spite of all that medical 
skill could do to check its progress, until 
finally she who loved to read, who w^as most 
skilful in the use of her pen, an adept in 
dainty needlework, and who delighted in all the 
routine of household duty, was compelled to 
live in almost total darkness. Even under this 
trial her serenity did not forsake her. As a 
child, musing in the old home garden, she 
believed she heard a voice from the infinite 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 21 

Space saying to her, ''The greatest thing in 
the world is the grace of God ; " and that 
grace, which she had early striven to make 
her own, was her support in these severe 
trials of her mature life. Instead of brood- 
ing in selfish discontent over her own afflic- 
tions, her heart went out in love to all the 
world, a love to which her unceasing efforts 
to help and benefit others abundantly testified. 

Her two married sons, her last remaining 
children, had died, one having been snatched 
away suddenly, without a moment's warning ; 
but the loving mother bore this trial in a 
spirit of uncomplaining resignation, while her 
sympathy for the sorrows of others seemed 
to grow broader and deeper from the very keen- 
ness of her own. 

God had blessed her with abundant means, 
and, following out her life-long habit of 
systematic benevolence, she made her bene- 



22 AN EARNEST UFE. 

factions generous and many. But what 
added to their value was the love which 
always went with them. 

When the estate of her father, John Len- 
thall, was divided, a large lot of ground on 
the corner of Nineteenth and G streets, in 
the northwestern part of Washington, fell 
to the share of Mrs. Stone, who was then 
but four years old. This property was 
allowed to remain unimproved for years, 
until, coming to maturity, she could herself 
decide what disposition should be made of 
it. She married, reared children, buried them, 
became a wddow, and still this land, which 
was located in one of the most desirable 
parts of Washington, remained unused, Mrs. 
Stone having years before determined that 
it should be devoted to some benevolent 
purpose, in memory of her father, from 
whom she had inherited it. 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 23 

In tlie year 1883 she carried out her 
design by giving this land as a site for a 
home for widows of the church in Wash- 
ington ; to further this purpose she gave also 
the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, fifteen 
thousand of which was to be used to build 
this home, the remaining ten to be invested, 
and the income therefrom to be appropriated to 
its repair, maintenance, or enlargement. True 
to her original intention, in memory of her 
father, dead long years before, she named 
this institution " The Lenthall Home." 

Being advanced in years, and desiring to 
secure able and trustworthy direction for 
this home, the prosperity of which she 
had so much at heart, Mrs. Stone placed 
it in charge of the rector and vestry of 
the Church of the Epiphany in Washington 
as trustees. 

According to the plan of the founder, 



24 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

each, inmate of the home has a separate 
and comfortable apartment of three rooms, 
for which she pays a small rent monthly, 
this course having been adopted by Mrs. 
Stone in order that each might enjoy that 
feeling of personal independence which the 
payment of a small rent would secure. 

All the arrangements of this home speak 
the personal thought of its founder for 
those who should occupy it. For instance, 
she said to a friend, '' I wanted the inside 
blinds because I could not bear to think 
that those who were to live in the Lenthall 
Home would be compelled to reach out on 
cold and perhaps stormy nights to close 
outside shutters ; they might be old and 
feeble, you know. I couldn't do it, and I 
shouldn't want them to." 

It was always thus with the benefactions 
of this loving soul ; whether small or great. 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 25 

the spirit of the giver doubled the value 
of the gifts. And her affectionate memory 
reached back over such long years ! She 
did not say, '' Mrs. Blank, whom I knew 
in girlhood, is in feeble health, and being 
poor I will send her something." But no ; 
''When we drive to-day I will go to see 
her ; she used to know sister and me well ; 
it will be pleasant to talk over old times 
together. We shall both enjoy it," and it 
w^ould be evident that both did. 

And so it w^as even to her latest years, 
when increasing infirmities would well have 
excused her from all effort, did Mrs. Stone 
hear of some poor soul in need and sorrow 
she would go herself, and so cheer the 
lonely heart by her sympathetic presence 
that the gift she might leave behind would 
seem but secondary to the better blessing 
of personal comfort and sympathy. She had 



26 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

taken the sufferer's hand, had shown her 
belief in a common sisterhood, her faith in 
the fatherhood of God — and yet Mrs. Stone 
preached no sermons excepting those which 
found utterance in the daily beauty of her 
gentle life. 

In 1886 Miss Lenthall, who had grown very 
feeble, left the old homestead on F street, and 
came to reside with Mrs. Stone, and from that 
time on the lives of the two sisters were passed 
under the same roof. Always united in their 
aims, they greatly enjoyed the close com- 
panionship which now became possible. One 
never rivaled but each aided the other in her 
works of love and mercy. Whether they were 
interested in packing a box for an unknown 
clergyman's family, or for a personal friend in 
a far away State, where, it would be gently 
explained, things cannot be bought so readily 
as in Washington, the interest and care to 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 2/ 

have all as it should be were unabated. They 
would frequently send boxes of books and 
clothing to the scholars in the Indian schools 
of Wisconsin, Minnesota, or more distant 
Dakota ; or it might be that a generous gift 
in money would go to these wards of the 
nation, with a message of love from one or 
both sisters, while grateful letters of thanks 
would come back to say how the gifts were 
welcomed. The teachers in these schools were 
often asked what their pupils most needed, and 
when the generous boxes would afterwards be 
received, many a little heart would be glad- 
dened by .finding therein the long coveted book 
or garment. The two sisters realized the 
value of self-help, and when they learned that 
the little scholars were busy with any especial 
kind of work would send abundant materials, 
often cut and basted for their use. Then the 
little brown fingers would perhaps toil to make 



28 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

a marvelous pair of slippers, or moccasins, to 
be sent back to their kind but unknown bene- 
factors. 

The sisters had the work of the church 
among the colored people also much at heart, 
and endeavored to aid it b}^ the same helpful 
methods they followed in regard to the scholars 
of the Indian schools. Books, money, gar- 
ments were given with generous hands, the 
latter being often painstakingly cut and 
basted, so that the mothers might see how 
to do things in the best way for their little 
ones, and in order to give more aid to the 
teachers, who, it was felt, had many times far 
too much on their hands. 

From one of these schools in the South for 
the training of colored children came back a 
picture of scholars and teachers in a group, 
which one dear sister could not see, and which 
failing speech made it impossible for the other 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 29 

to talk of, but both were made happy by the 
gift, one listening while some kind voice 
described the happy picture, and the face of 
the other glowing as she looked and exclaimed 
in faltering words, ''Ah, yes; so comfortable, 
so good ! " 

But it was not far away churches or schools 
or people only who were aided by Mrs. Stone 
and her sister. They dearly loved to help 
those near home who stood in need. St. 
Luke's Church, the Garfield Hospital, and 
many other churches and institutions in 
Washington, and not far distant, were the 
recipients of their thoughtful gifts. As a 
friend once said, no one ever asked Mrs. Stone 
for help — no one ever had a chance ; she had 
only to learn that this or that was needed, and 
it came. As eyesight failed her, she resorted 
more and more to her knitting when she 
wished to make a gift which she knew would 



30 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

be prized as the work of her hands. She 
knitted flags, counterpanes, wristlets, muifs, 
reins for little children, and a friend found her 
one day hard at work on a mitten for a driver 
of one of the street-cars ; this mitten to be 
padded in the palm, because he had hurt his 
hand with the brake. Did she know him ? 
Oh, no ; but some one had told her how it was, 
and she hoped to help him a little in this way. 

And all this personal effort and care, and 
toil even, on the part of a frail, aged woman, 
whose gifts in money to every good work 
were so generous and so constant as to 
make any but one who had learned the 
true joy of serving feel that her duty was 
fulfilled without this personal exertion. 

And so the peaceful, helpful life went on 
in the home on Fourteenth street. The 
noise and rush and tumult of the city came 
nearer and nearer, but within all was 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 3 1 

unchanged. Strangers were struck on enter- 
ing this home by the air of solid comfort, 
of dignity and repose which pervaded all 
its ample space, while the wide hall, the 
high ceilings, and the large windows, the 
same characteristics which impress one in 
the Logan home, bespoke the guiding spirit 
of the same builder. Over the grassy gar- 
den, which hides behind its high brick 
walls, there rested an air of unbroken quiet 
and repose, in peaceful contrast to the busy 
street without. From the north window of 
the entrance hall, at the foot of the stair- 
case, even casual callers could catch a 
glimpse of this sheltered spot, with its 
climbing vines, its waving trees, and its 
pathetic statue in the centre. 

And if the spirit of this dear home thus 
impressed those who came and went almost 
as strangers, what can be said of its influ- 



32 AN EARNEST LIFE. 

ence on those bound by the tenderest ties 
of kinship to its gentle mistress, and on 
those others, not a few, who through long 
years of familiar intercourse found in her 
a friend unfailing in patience, abundant in 
S3^mpathy, and wise in counsel ? 

In the spring of 1892 it became evident 
that the life of Miss Lenthall was nearing 
its close, and that another great sorrow 
would soon overshadow the home of Mrs. 
Stone. This beloved sister died on the 
third of May, 1892, when she lacked but a 
few weeks of being ninety years old, the 
aged saint who was to survive yet a little 
longer bearing this last bereavement with 
the same gentle. Christian resignation which 
had characterized her in all the sorrows of 
her earlier years. Her own hold on life 
became each day more feeble, but while 
increasing pain tortured the wasted frame 



AN EARNEST LIFE. 33 

her heavenly patience and fortitude did not 
forsake her, and her gentle courtesy toward 
all about her was unfailing, although the 
thought of the sufferings so heroically endured 
by this frail woman wrung many a loving 
heart through these last, long months. All 
knew how in the solitude of her increasing 
deafness, and almost total blindness, the 
great heart was still filled with love for all 
the world ; knew, too, how every respite from 
agonizing pain was embraced as an oppor- 
tunity to help and bless others, and how, 
while life and strength were so fast ebbing 
away, she seemed but the more eager to 
obey the apostolic command, " While we have 
time, let us do good unto all men." 

Even in these last hours her sympathy 
was as quick as of old for the joys as 
well as for the sorrows of her friends, one 
of her last acts being the selection of a 



34 AN EARNEST LIFE!. 

wedding gift for a young clergyman, formerly 
of Washington, whom she had always held 
in affectionate regard. It was touching to 
hear the old, familiar tone in the voice, as 
in a brief respite from pain she eagerl}/ 
asked the day of the month, spoke of the 
wedding, and gave directions for sending 
the gift. 

In a few hours thereafter she passed the 
line of conscious suffering, and fell asleep — 
to waken no more here ; this life, which had 
been so fraught with unselfish blessings for 
the lives of others, ending on the third of 
August, 1892. 

In the quiet sunset light of a summer's day 
Mrs. Stone was buried beside her husband and 
children, from the Rock Creek parish church, 
which had been the place of worship of her 
family during the happy life at " Mount 
Pleasant." As suggested by the tender words 



An earnest life. 35 

of consolation spoken by the rector, who, 
during the nearly forty years of his ministry 
at this church, had been the fast friend of Mrs. 
Stone, recalling her deep but unobtrusive piety, 
her boundless sympathy for the unfortunate 
and the sorrowful, her countless works of 
charity and mercy, let us remember this 
beloved friend as our Saint Elizabeth. 



t'BRARY OF 



S^GRESS 



